Vivian Go

Vivian Go is a Professor of Health Behavior, Associate Director of the Center for AIDS Research Social and Behavioral Science Core, and a Member of the Institute for Global and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) at UNC. Her research focuses on the intersection between HIV and co-morbidities including mental health and opioid use disorders, stigma and discrimination among key populations including people who inject drugs and men who have sex with men and scaling up evidence-based HIV interventions. Her work integrates intervention research, implementation science, qualitative methods, and mixed methods.

Examples of current or recently funded projects include REDART (Reducing Alcohol to Improve ART Adherence), a NIDA R01 randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of two brief alcohol reduction interventions to the standard of care among antiretroviral therapy (ART) clients in Vietnam; SNaP (Systems Navigation and Psychosocial Counseling); a NIDA R01 implementation science trial to scale up an HIV intervention among people who inject drugs who are living with HIV in Vietnam; OHOP (Ohio Opioid Project) a NIDA/CDC/SAMSA UG3/UH3 to identify and address harm reduction service delivery gaps in southern rural Ohio. She is also co-Director of an NIH D43 implementation science training program for Vietnamese researchers and policymakers.

Dr. Go has worked in Vietnam for over 20 years where she and Dr. Tran Viet Ha (In-Country Director and Assistant Professor at UNC) established a UNC-Vietnam site comprising over 30 full-time Vietnamese staff who are highly trained and skilled in conducting large clinical and behavioral trials. The UNC-Vietnam office is based in Hanoi and is registered with the Vietnam government. UNC-Vietnam is one of five IGHID flagship sites and one of four international clinical research sites (CRS) within the UNC-Chapel Hill Clinical Trials Unit. The Vietnam CRS has access to a range of studies including investigations of ART, cure and immune modulators, HIV-associated disease and treatment complications, and viral co-infections. The Vietnam CRS is currently conducting HPTN 083, an ongoing study of the efficacy of a long-acting injectable to prevent HIV in transgender women and men who have sex with men. UNC-Vietnam has longstanding collaborations with the Hanoi Medical University and the Vietnam Authority for HIV/AIDS Control MoH.